[00:17.000]Hear the sledges with the bells—
[00:19.000]Silver bells!
[00:21.000]What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
[00:24.000]How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
[00:28.000]In the icy air of night!
[00:29.000]While the stars that oversprinkle
[00:30.000]All the heavens, seem to twinkle
[00:32.000]With a crystalline delight;
[00:34.000]Keeping time, time, time,
[00:36.000]In a sort of Runic rhyme,
[00:37.400]To the tintinabulation that so musically wells
[00:42.000]From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
[00:44.000]Bells, bells, bells—
[00:45.000]From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
[00:54.000]Hear the mellow wedding bells,
[00:57.000]Golden bells!
[00:58.000]What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
[01:01.000]Through the balmy air of night
[01:04.000]How they ring out their delight!
[01:05.000]From the molten-golden notes,
[01:08.000]And all in tune,
[01:09.000]What a liquid ditty floats
[01:11.800]To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
[01:15.000]On the moon!
[01:15.900]Oh, from out the sounding cells,
[01:17.000]What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
[01:21.000]How it swells!
[01:21.900]How it dwells
[01:23.500]On the Future! how it tells
[01:24.500]Of the rapture that impels
[01:25.500]To the swinging and the ringing
[01:28.300]Of the bells, bells, bells,
[01:30.000]Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
[01:32.000]Bells, bells, bells—
[01:33.300]To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!
[01:42.000]Hear the loud alarum bells—
[01:45.000]Brazen bells!
[01:46.000]What tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
[01:50.000]In the startled ear of night
[01:51.800]How they scream out their affright!
[01:53.000]Too much horrified to speak,
[01:55.000]They can only shriek, shriek,
[01:57.000]Out of tune,
[01:59.500]In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
[02:02.000]In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
[02:06.000]Leaping higher, higher, higher,
[02:08.000]With a desperate desire,
[02:10.000]And a resolute endeavor
[02:11.000]Now—now to sit or never,
[02:13.000]By the side of the pale-faced moon.
[02:16.500]Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
[02:19.000]What a tale their terror tells
[02:21.000]Of Despair!
[02:22.500]How they clang, and clash, and roar!
[02:24.000]What a horror they outpour
[02:26.000]On the bosom of the palpitating air!
[02:29.500]Yet the ear it fully knows,
[02:32.000]By the twanging,
[02:33.000]And the clanging,
[02:33.500]How the danger ebbs and flows;
[02:36.000]Yet the ear distinctly tells,
[02:38.000]In the jangling,
[02:39.000]And the wrangling.
[02:40.000]How the danger sinks and swells,
[02:43.000]By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells—
[02:46.000]Of the bells—
[02:47.800]Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
[02:50.000]Bells, bells, bells—
[02:52.000]In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!
[03:42.000]Hear the tolling of the bells—
[03:44.000]Iron bells!
[03:45.200]What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
[03:49.000]In the silence of the night,
[03:50.800]How we shiver with affright
[03:52.800]At the melancholy menace of their tone!
[03:55.800]For every sound that floats
[03:58.000]From the rust within their throats
[04:00.000]Is a groan.
[04:02.000]And the people—ah, the people—
[04:04.000]They that dwell up in the steeple,
[04:05.300]All alone,
[04:06.000]And who tolling, tolling, tolling,
[04:09.000]In that muffled monotone,
[04:11.000]Feel a glory in so rolling
[04:13.000]On the human heart a stone—
[04:15.000]They are neither man nor woman—
[04:16.000]They are neither brute nor human—
[04:17.800]They are Ghouls:
[04:19.000]And their king it is who tolls;
[04:21.800]And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
[04:23.000]Rolls
[04:23.400]A pæan from the bells!
[04:24.800]And his merry bosom swells
[04:27.000]With the pæan of the bells!
[04:30.700]And he dances, and he yells;
[04:32.900]Keeping time, time, time,
[04:34.000]In a sort of Runic rhyme,
[04:36.000]To the pæan of the bells—
[04:38.000]Of the bells:
[04:40.000]Keeping time, time, time,
[04:42.000]In a sort of Runic rhyme,
[04:23.000]To the throbbing of the bells—
[04:45.000]Of the bells, bells, bells—
[04:47.000]To the sobbing of the bells;
[04:49.000]Keeping time, time, time,
[04:51.000]As he knells, knells, knells,
[04:52.000]In a happy Runic rhyme,
[04:54.000]To the rolling of the bells—
[04:56.000]Of the bells, bells, bells—
[04:58.000]To the tolling of the bells,
[05:01.000]Of the bells, bells, bells, bells—
[05:04.000]Bells, bells, bells—
[05:05.300]Of the bells, bells, bells, bells—
[05:08.000]Bells, bells, bells—
[05:09.500]To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.
[05:18.000]Bells, bells, bells—
[05:24.000]Bells, bells—
[05:27.500]Of the bells!